2016 Big School And Small School Top 5 (Not Including Out-Of-Area OVAC Teams)

[Jello Man]

BIG SCHOOL:

1. Steubenville -- #StateTitleOrBust -- Absolutely ridiculous!

2. Brooke -- Major drop from #1 to #2, but someone has to be #2. They seem to have turned the corner under Mac McLean.

3. Wheeling Park -- There will be no repeat of a state title, but they should be pretty good.

4. Harrison Central -- Three 4-year starters on the O-line and senior fullback/linebacker Jesse Ball. Plus, they get Martins Ferry and St. Clairsville at home, which means MUD.

5. Martins Ferry -- Powder puff schedule plays a role in the ranking, but they should be much better this year with 4 of 5 O-linemen and the fullback returning.

Unknowns: -- St. Clairsville and Indian Creek.

St. C. just has too many holes to fill to be ranked in the preseason Top 5. They should have speed to burn, though, and could end up being in the Top 5.

As for Creek, they lost the kid who would have been their big-time player this year in Jabari Taylor to Akron Hoban. But word is they may have picked up at least one person who was at Bellaire St. John's last year, which would give them a big boost.


SMALL SCHOOL:

1. Wheeling Central -- #StateTitleOrBust

2. Shadyside -- Tremendous coaching and weight-training staff will have them ready to rumble.

3. Bellaire -- Go ahead and laugh. Just make sure you have your stopwatch ready to time how long it takes them to sprint to your end zone.

4-7. Four-way tie: River, Linsly, Toronto, and Steubenville Central:

River called both Bellaire and Shadyside wanting to play in the same season, so the Pilots must think they have something.

Linsly always has athletes. When you have athletes, you have a chance.

Toronto will have plenty of speed and experience returning.

Steubenville Central should be good as long as they can get their new QB in place.

Unknown: Magnolia -- Major holes for the defending state champions to try to fill.

[bigreds pride]

I agree jello bellaire will hv alot of speed especially with burney.

[Sergeant Reckless]

Best thing to happen to this Bellaire senior class is change in leadership.

From my understanding the interaction with the staff, community, team and all around direction of the program is a huge improvement.

The change in the weight lifting program. When a player gains 15lbs while running track something is going right.

Watching the coach support the boys, football moms during a recent fundraiser, working with the community during clean-up day - All day. The tension is gone.

Close to 70 kids on the roster. Players switching from other sports to football. Hearing positive remarks from the boys about the coach, the weight program and the team in general, speaks volumes. It is about time.

Hearing the positives from other coaches, the players, and the community. Not sure what the year holds, however, the program will improve yearly.

[Jello Man]

Best thing to happen to this Bellaire senior class is change in leadership.

From my understanding the interaction with the staff, community, team and all around direction of the program is a huge improvement.

The change in the weight lifting program. When a player gains 15lbs while running track something is going right.

Watching the coach support the boys, football moms during a recent fundraiser, working with the community during clean-up day - All day. The tension is gone.

Close to 70 kids on the roster. Players switching from other sports to football. Hearing positive remarks from the boys about the coach, the weight program and the team in general, speaks volumes. It is about time.

Hearing the positives from other coaches, the players, and the community. Not sure what the year holds, however, the program will improve yearly.

I generally agree. They only problem I see is some of the enrollment numbers for some of the elementary school classes right now.

If a class has 68 kids, you figure half are boys, so that's 34.
Then, say half of those play football, so that's 17.
Then, say half of those are what you would consider serious football players, so that's 8 or 9.

For the time being, though, things are certainly looking up for the Big Reds.

My understanding is Bellaire is going back to keeping freshmen totally separate from varsity, at least during games. Having 30 freshmen out will let you do that.

St. Clairsville also lists 30 freshmen, but they will also suit up for varsity, in addition to playing their freshmen schedule.

[bigreds pride]

There is 70 players on the roster if so thats a big improvement.

[165010]

I generally agree. They only problem I see is some of the enrollment numbers for some of the elementary school classes right now.

If a class has 68 kids, you figure half are boys, so that's 34.
Then, say half of those play football, so that's 17.
Then, say half of those are what you would consider serious football players, so that's 8 or 9.

For the time being, though, things are certainly looking up for the Big Reds.

My understanding is Bellaire is going back to keeping freshmen totally separate from varsity, at least during games. Having 30 freshmen out will let you do that.

St. Clairsville also lists 30 freshmen, but they will also suit up for varsity, in addition to playing their freshmen schedule.

Son is on the team. 27 Freshman. They will suit up for the Varsity as well as play JV and Freshman.

[powtowner]

Shadyside is returning a bunch.... Donnie Meadows is a monster, much bigger than his brother Zach. If he gets the mean streak that Z-moe had watch out. Billy Johnson isnt playing summer baseball in order to get ready for this football season. The Tigers are actually moving linemen out to skill postitions because there are an abundance of lineman ready to play other than moving TEs down to play tackle.....

[Jello Man]

Son is on the team. 27 Freshman. They will suit up for the Varsity as well as play JV and Freshman.

That is probably the best way to develop them. You don't get better by just watching.

27 is an amazing number of freshmen for a Division 6 PUBLIC school. Some D6 public schools (Monroe Central the last couple of years) are lucky to have 27 total varsity players.

[football7]

Pretty sure every teams numbers are up in early June. Let's reassess these numbers in August. Not just for Bellaire, but all schools.

[norbit]

Pretty sure every teams numbers are up in early June. Let's reassess these numbers in August. Not just for Bellaire, but all schools.

Get use to it buddy. Bellaire is on their way to multiple state championship runs with best incoming freshman class to walk the halls at Bellaire High School.

[Jello Man]

Get use to it buddy. Bellaire is on their way to multiple state championship runs with best incoming freshman class to walk the halls at Bellaire High School.

I don't think I would go that far. But, the days of 2-8 are gone for the foreseeable future.

[Harding Bulldogs]

1. Big Red
2.WP
3.Brooke
4.Morgantown
5.HC

1.Toronto
2.River
3.Shadyside
4.Wellsvillle
5.WCC

[bigreds pride]

U got toronto, river ahead of bellaire, shadyside, wcc u must be crazy

[KEVDRCH]

Bishop Donahue only lost two starters that played both ways. They should be very good this year.

[SuRfSiDeR]

Cannot conceivably put Toronto in Top 10, let alone Top 5.
River will be very good again returning 10 on each side of ball, Shadyside gained a lot of experience last season and STILL made the playoffs, BD should win 8 or 9.
Wheeling Central will be printing up state champion t-shirts in a few months, Linsly will be good, and Bellaire talks a good game, but this year should back it up.